The term — initially rooted in the idea that gender is a social construct — has become a catch-all for right-wing groups targeting what they see as a progressive agenda that includes everything from access to abortion to sex education to LGBTQ+ rights.
This is “something broader than anti-abortion,” explained Neil Datta, the executive director of the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (EPF), a pro-choice parliamentary network working to keep sexual and reproductive rights high on lawmakers’ agenda.
“The fact that they go for abortion rather than LGBT rights is simply a question of opportunity at one time or another,” Datta said of the anti-gender ideology movement, arguing that ultra-conservatives have made a habit of “taking religious ideas, wiping away the religious element, and framing them in a secular-sounding way.”
A report by the published by the EPF on Thursday found that hundreds of organisations targeting gender ideology — including advocacy groups, media, political parties and think tanks — raised roughly $1.18 billion between 2019 and 2023, up from $81.3 million from the 2009 to 2018 period.
A splurge of cash has been pivotal to beefing up lobbying in Brussels, strengthening social media outreach, providing trainings for young conservative leaders, and, in some cases, directly financing political groups. The results have varied, but the effort has had some victories, including a clampdown on LGBTQ+ families in Italy and restrictions on abortion in Poland. {read}